Many of the Yellow Pages type companies are learning that their content has value online.

On March the 1st SuperPages, Verizon's Internet Yellow Pages website, will launch a redesigned website which includes pay per click advertising. Duncan Parry previews the PPC product that will be on offer and asks James Palma, Directory of Strategy, how SuperPages aims to sell PPC advertising to local businesses. - from PayPerClickAnalysis.com article

Verison is planning on charging by category to help business save time.

The associated prices will weed out much of the advertising from the smaller unique competitors who are the ones that actually add the true value to the Verison SuperPages site.

A much better way to price it would be to sell as a hybrid. Offer the category listings, and also sell keyword listings in a Dutch auction. Assuming they could place the direct matches about their category listings, this would increase the quality of their product and allow them to sell more ad space.

I will be the first to say that most SEO software is garbage. A complete waste of money. Most of what you want for SEO software is 100% free. This amazing find is no different.

Link Tree is a free web based link analysis software program which compares the links to other websites to your own. This is not a boring overly dressed up link tool (like what Marketleap offers), this tool is super duper cool. What does Link Tree Do?

Link tree looks for topical hubs which are not yet linking to your site.

How does Link Tree Work?

Enter the URLs of up to seven of your competitors and then your own URL at the bottom. Any page that links to at least two of your competitors which does not link to your site will display on the results.

What does that do for my site?

It shows you where some potential easy link opportunities are. If you have done a good job concentrating on creating quality content, then getting the links should be a snap.

If one of your competitors moves websites you can tell the people who were linking to them that the site is no longer there. You can also state that you have a wonderful resource they may want to link to. People are more likely to help you after you have helped them.

Find where link popularity is comming from if you have a couple competitors who are building bogus link popularity in kahoots. Perhaps you can also rent some quality inbound links to level the playing field.

Find quality resources you did not know about by viewing the pages that link to many resources in your field.

You can also set one of the test URLs to an extremely popular topical website, which will aid you in viewing the hub links which go into any one competitor at a time.

You can set one of the URLs to a really popular site. It will act as an overly generic catch all to make it easier to find hidden smaller hubs in your field. After you have completed your task you can then switch to another generic link to find more micro hubs.

Purple Cow had a remarkable distribution chanel by coming in purple milk cartons.

It is no surprise then that his most upcomming book, titled Free Prize Inside is to include special packaging (most likely with a free prize inside).

Free Prize Inside is set to ship in 10 weeks and I have already ordered mine.

I have seen Seth when he came to Rhode Island and have also went to his office to hang out for the day. If you look closely in the picture in this branding article, those are my hands holing the Yorkie bar while I am standing next to Seth.

It appears Google has gone far beyond stemming with their current algorithm update. They seem to be looking for semantic intent of the query as well as the page, and then returning a result based upon it. The resulting pages frequently may not even have the query on the page.

(original discussion in HighRankings Forums) Many local sites from Florida to Austin to NYC have taken a beating by the recent Google algorithm updates (Florida and Austin.) Is it any wonder they named these recent Google algorithm updates after locations?

Google still have some things to work out with the new algorithm though, as many search results are still a wee bit funky. If the relevancy only drops on commercial searches that is not so bad in the eyes of Google since other products such as Froogle will help in this area. Perhaps semantics are the way to separate the white pages from the yellow pages!

Finally "FindWhat said shareholders of privately-held Espotting would get 7 million shares of FindWhat stock and about $20 million in cash. FindWhat said the total deal values Espotting at about $170 million based on last Friday's closing stock prices"
(from Rueters) Back in June FindWhat & Espotting crafted a deal of similar value. The problem with the old deal is that some of Espotting's books looked weak and FindWhat has seen its stock rise considerably. The original deal was 8.1 million shares of FindWhat and $27 million in cash.

"FindWhat also reported fourth-quarter net income of $3.5 million, or 15 cents per share, compared with a year-earlier profit of $2.7 million, or 14 cents per share.

For 2004, the company offered guidance for revenue of $95 million, with net income of 60 cents per share. Analysts surveyed by Reuters Research, a unit of Reuters Group, had expected revenue of $96.6 million and earnings per share of 63 cents."
(source News.com)

This is a list of Major Web Directories and reviewed web guides. Web DirectoriesBusiness.com charges a $299 annual listing fee. Business.com is a purchase more for direct traffic than link popularity.DMOZ - also known as the Open Directory Project - provides free listings, but it may take a while to get your site listed.Gimpsy verb based directory which charges a one time $40 fee or also list your site free if you are willing to wait 21 days.GoGuides one time $40 fee or provides free listings for editors.JoeANT one time $40 fee or provides free listings for editors (it is quick and easy to become an editor.)Lycos Directory European based directory.Skaffe one time $40 fee or provides free listings to editors. Originally Built from GoGuides core data.Uncover the Net - Newer directory which has more link popularity than all but a couple directories on this list. My friend Shawn has done a fantastic job promoting Uncover the Net. $39 fee. Highly recommendedWeb Beacon one time $40 fee or provides free listings to editors. Originally Built from GoGuides core data.Wow Directory - Bruce Stone's directory. Offers free inclusion, paid inclusion, and sponsorship opportunities. Highly recommendedYahoo $299 annual fee or free for non commercial websites.

Overture (2) appears on Yahoo, MSN InfoSpace, AltaVista, AllTheWeb, and many other sites. Owned by Yahoo.

---------

Pay per click search engines usually drive most of their traffic based on their partner network. Pay per click ads are mixed in with meta search engines and usually exist at the top of search results on major search engines. (personal rankings)Enhance Interactive (6)Espotting (European) powers many European portals which are not powered by Overture or AdWordsFindology - smaller PPC which allows you to select which partners your ads will appear on and lets you target your ads geographically. Primarily focused on lead generation, retail, and adult traffic markets. (8)FindWhat (3)Google AdWords (1) - powers Google, Ask Jeeves, AOL, IWON, Earthlink and many other sitesKanoodle (5) - Kanoodle has some really cool features and a good contextual advertising program (especially for financial type websites).LookSmart - while actually being a directory, LookSmart has a decent sized distribution network. I have been told many complaints about their poor customer service though and when I tried their engine their traffic quality was crap. Recommend avoiding (4)Overture (2) appears on Yahoo, MSN InfoSpace, AltaVista, AllTheWeb, and many other sites. Owned by Yahoo.Search123 (7)

When people talk about hubs and authorities, these are some of the most authoritative sites in the SEO industry. Search Engine Watch - considered the bible of search engine information. Danny Sullivan keeps up with all angles of search. He provides an excellent free newsletter (SearchDay) and also hosts Search Engine Strategies.

Search Engine Guide - probably considered the #2 site in search, Robert Cloude collects articles from various authors which provide an in depth review of what is going on in the search world.

Pandia - a bit more of an old school website, Pandia still provides many quality articles about SEO and the search engine industry.

Search Marketing Info - this is my article and general information website. While not as powerful as the above sites yet, I look to keep improving throughout the next couple years to increase the usability and quality of my content to where the site is equal parts beef and cake.

Black Hat SEO - nobody has made a worst practice SEO guide until I created this evil being. It will probably never garner amazing support, but the site is fun and I have been told it has helped many webmasters.

This is a somewhat comprehensive list of SEO forums. If you know of any SEO forums that are missing from this list, feel free to add them in the comments and I may eventually get around to adding them to the list.

Forum Meta Information:
There are a ton of SEO forums and it is hard to keep up with all of the information that is put out in all of them. Fortunately there are a bunch of bloggers like me who try to point out some of the good stuff in them. ThreadWatch is a bit of a hybrid, sorta like a blog and a forum. It is ran by DaveN, many other friends, and I.

ThreadWatch also sports a good number of gossip column type entries that makes each visit enjoyable. ThreadWatch was created to help the mid to high level SEO professional. ... on with the list of forums.

Top Rated SEO Forums:

SearchGuild.com (retired) - Chris Ridings SEO Forums. Very open and layback...good community feel to it, though activity has been a bit slow over the summer...I moderate at SearchGuild.

V7N Web Dev Community - John Scott's SEO forum...John is known to challenge some of the "norms" and put out info that sometimes goes against the grain. In the past I moderated at V7N.

Search Engine Watch Forums - newer SEO forums where many long time / old school SEOs hang out. Lots of breaking news breaks at SEW forums.

Digital Point - a newcomer on the forum scene, Digital Point has quickly grown to be the most active forum by combining a fairly hands off social policy with innovative forum features and cool SEO tools.

SEO Guy Forums - newer SEO forum which has taken off well. SEO Guy is a longtime member of SEO Chat. When he made his own forums many of SEO Chat's best members went with him. I moderate at the SEO Guy SEO forums.

What I consider to be a top rated SEO forum is one where:

it is ok to express various opinions (if you find an SEO technique effective it is ok to discuss it even if search engines do not particularly like that technique); &

there is a high signal to noise ratio.

Largest SEO Forums:

Digital Point - a newcomer on the forum scene, Digital Point has quickly grown to be the most active forum by combining a fairly hands off social policy with innovative forum features and cool SEO tools.

Jimworld / searchengineforums.com (retired) - Webmaster Forums. The late Jim Wilson created what I think was the first popular SEO / webmaster forum. From what I know the forum seems well past its brighter days.

SitePoint Forums - webmaster coding forums. Many of the other forums have been primarily driven by the marketing angle. SitePoint places more focus on coding and site development than most of the other large forums.

SEO Chat - It was originally started by Darrin Ward around the same time as SearchGuild was launched. Darrin sold SEO Chat to the owner of the DevShed network. SEO Chat has a ton of ads on it and is advertised heavily on networks like O'Reilly. The link rentals mean their posts come up well in search results and also that they parse a good amount of link popularity out in post sig links. The heavy on site advertising (some pages have huge ads and even have sponsored text links for buying prescription drugs on them) coupled with the large # of "me too" type posts that their link popularity has makes SEO Chat appear unappealing to many experienced SEOs. DevShed later sold SEO Chat to Jim Boykin, who drastically reduced the on-site ads to improve user experience.

Webmaster World - Webmaster Forums. Currently this is perhaps the largest SEO / Webmaster forum (although Digital Point might be getting more daily posts). It was created by Bret Tabke and a few other webmasters with the goal of beating out Jimworld. They appear successful in that goal, but now Webmaster World has strict posting guidelines and over time lost many of its best members. Many of the best old timers from Webmaster World moved to post at the Search Engine Watch Forums, though it too eventually closed. Jim Boykin eventually acquired Wemaster World.

The volume of information in large SEO forums is immense...hence the fact I classify them as large ;-)

Large SEO forums tend to eventually lose some of their community feel. They are hard to scale without losing that community feel, and when that community feel goes away the forums become too hard to moderate as the signal to noise ratio makes them too hard to keep up with. Digital Point has done an amazing job of scaling out a forum that still has a good sense of community to it.

The Big SEO Forum List:

Abakus Forums - SEO forums - smaller, but they have a larger German version too. Webby moderates at a good number of various SEO forums. Swell chap :)

Band of Gonzo's Webmasters Forums - A few of the lead posters at WebProWorld created their own SEO forums. Dodger tends to dig up a good number of interesting news pieces.

Digital Point Forums - Shawn Hogan's mid sized SEO forum. Shawn is a programmer by trade and has created some of the coolest free SEO tools available. His forums tend to be rather liberal and many people who are kicked out of other SEO forums learn now to behave before they get kicked out of his (I do not think I have ever seen him ban anyone). He seems like a rather swell chap.

Highrankings SEO Forums - Jill Whalen's mid sized SEO forums. Jill is branded as "the SEO copywriter." Her forum is geared primarily at people new to SEO, but there are also a variety of more experienced SEOs there too. Her forum tends to be rather conservative or "white hat."

IhelpYou Forums - Doug Heil's mid sized SEO forums. Doug is a self appointed crusader against search engine spam. He is quick to judge and his opinion is strongly reflected in his forums. Above when I wrote about the gossip column posts at ThreadWatch the one about Doug Heil's SPAM comes to mind.

Jimworld - large webmaster forums. A bit past its prime in my opinion. A larger and older forum on the forum scene which I rarely visit.

Ozzu - mid sized webmaster forums. I do not post at their forum frequently enough to adequately review it, except to say that it has a decent signal to noise ratio and a cool looking design :)

Resource Zone - Webmaster forums for public interfacing with the DMOZ (Open Directory Project) editors. Lots of major webmaster conflicts occur there. Some of the editors are great, but some are also judgemental and mean. Often frustrated webmasters directly accessing these editors means you get to see the best and worst the editors have to offer.

While the Newsgroups do have good stuff in them, they also lack moderation and that can lead to lots of misinformation. A newer Newsgroup powered by Google Groups 2 and moderated by Andrew Goodman is located here.

Andrew writes for Traffick.com, is consider as one of the leading gurus on Google AdWords, and he was the moderator of the I-Search list before the I-lists went away. His newsgroup has many higger level posts from sophisticated and experienced marketers.

LED Digest, one of the original email only discussion lists, also discusses SEO and other internet marketing and webmaster related issues.

Old SEO Forums Article
Here is a review of SEO forums I did near the end of 2003. Please note that some of its info may be slightly outdated, as things have changed and I have learned a good bit more in the past year. The information on this page is WAY MORE up to date than the info in that article.

This is a list of most of the SEO Blogs and Search Engine Blogs on the internet. If you know of an SEO Blog or Search Engine Blog I am missing from this list, just add it as a comment and I will include it on this list.

Currently my list of SEO Blogs is only in English due to my lack of fluidity (is that a word) in other languages.

John Battelle's SearchBlog - a well rounded view of the evolution and impact of search and technology. John Battelle eat sleeps and breathes search.

Bazac Blog - Daniel Bazac is a fan of serch who writes his commentary on the subject. He has had a few of his articles syndicated on many websites. A couple of these blogs were found via his list of blogs here.

Creative Confusion - Craig Wilson reviews some of the SEO techniques he is currently using as well as other news within the SEO and web development landscape. Craig's blog has a good amount of UK focus.

ChriSEO - is not so much a classic blog, as it is a source for random fun articles about the search field. Chris Ridings is one of the most knowledgeable SEO's in the industry, and owner of SearchGuild. He does not update ChriSEO too often, but it is always fun when he does.

Daily Rundown - Sid Yadav is a web professional who updates his blog more than a couple times a day. His blog includes classical up-to-date info on Search Engines, Internet, Marketing, Companies, His Life and basically anything "techy".

David Naylor - blog offering various tips and tricks. DaveN is a rather advanced agressive creative type SEO.

Nielson Tech Blog - Christian Nielson is a smaller, independant search engine marketer who believes strongly that search engine optimization provides a far greater ROI than paid search. His words are those of a man looking out for the small guy.

Precommerce Blog - Craig Danuloff's blog on search and the internet. He takes a lengthy gander at some of ironic details and provides commentary which makes you wonder & sometimes explains why they exist.

Research Buzz - search blog about every interesting angle of search. Not really an SEO, but a true fan of search. Tara Calishain has co authored multiple books about search engines.

Resource Shelf - Gary Price's in depth look at the different faces of information retrieval.

Search Engine Visiblity Report is edited by Merrick Lozano, who keeps a business like look and feel to his blog. Many of his posts are loger than the average blog. More of a comentary versus short and punchy type of blog.

StuntDubl - Todd Malicoat's SEO and internet marketing blog. Has a cool design and Todd is a swell chap. He gave me a cool white hat that I turned beige, but it is still cool to wear 5 - 6 days a week.

Text Link Brokers - newer community driven blog from one of the top text link brokers on the market.

Traffick - Andrew Goodman is the moderator of the Isearch discussion list. His blog is generally more concerned with pay per click angle, and the major effects of search and portal changes on the web as a whole.

Join an autosurf network which exchanges Alexa credits. Direct Hit failed as a search engine because it based a large portion of its algorithm on web traffic. Alexa ranking is highly inaccurate and easy to manipulate.

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